"This story is a reminder of how incredibly murky the art market is, when all of the data we have about art sales globally comes from the auction market, which only accounts for around half of total sales. The rest of global art sales occur privately through galleries and dealers who often don’t make any of their prices public or only offer this information up on an anecdotal basis. We’re basically grappling with a market where price information on half of the sales that occur is pretty much unknowable, which makes Peter Lik’s claim suspect, even if this work did sell for $6.5 million. Like the rest of us, he only has auction records and other anecdotal information to go on, so has no way of definitively knowing whether this is the most expensive photograph in history or not.

"It’s also a cautionary tale for anyone thinking about photography, or any art work, as an investment. It should be pretty obvious that paying a lot of money for a piece does not mean that you will make money if you sell it, but you are unlikely to sell it at all if there’s little or no secondary market for that artist. As I’ve written before, according to some art consultants, 90% of art sold in galleries today is worth less as soon as you’ve purchased it.The moral of this tale? Look before you leap.